Venetian blind cleaning rack



p 1956 s. SIMMONS VENETIAN BLIND CLEANING RACK Filed April '7, 1954 United States Patent Oflice 2,763,024 Patented Sept. 18, 1956 VENETIAN BLIND CLEANING Sidney Simmons, Detroit, Mich.

Application April 7, 1954, Serial No. 421,627

2 Claims. (Cl. 15-268) This invention relates to a device for supporting a Venetian blind during cleaning or other operations wherein the extended blind is to be held in a pendant manner with the slats thereof supported against undue flexing under the pressure of cleaning, scouring, painting or other means.

An important feature of my improved device is to pro vide for the ready re-positioning of the slat supports from one face of the blind to the other so that operations on the blind may be effected with a minimum of difiiculty from either side and complete access to the entire width of the slats be thereby easily secured without necessarily calling for the actual removal of the blind as a unit from and its reversal as a whole on the supporting structure.

More particularly the invention contemplates the pro vision of a cleaning rack having movable, and removable, slat supports in the form of struts which are not only adjustable as to spacing to meet various widths of blind, but which may be quickly and easily applied to either face of the blind without necessarily requiring the removal of the suspended blind from its upper support.

Still further the said invention contemplates the combination, with a pair of demountable trestle or ladder-like structures, of an extensible cross bar supported between the upper ends of said structures and a series of pendant struts having their upper ends adjustably connected to said cross bar, so that they may be variably spaced therealong, said struts being of a length slightly in excess of the height of said cross bar from the floor, whereby, with their lower ends contacting the floor, the said struts will assume a position slightly inclined from the vertical and the angle of such inclination may be adjusted to one or other side of such vertical. Thus, an extended blind hung from and below said cross bar may be adequately supported in a working position inclined to one or other side of said vertical.

Still further objects or advantages additional or subsidiary to the aforesaid objects, or resulting from the construction or operation of the invention as it may be carried into effect, will become apparent as the said invention is hereinafter further disclosed.

In carrying the said invention into effect, I may adopt the novel construction and arrangement of parts hereinafter described, by way of example, having reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of my improved rack in assembled position ready for the application of a blind thereto;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary detail transverse sectional :View of the same, taken on a plane indicated by the line 2-2 in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of a portion of the cross bar of the device showing the attachment of one of the struts thereto as well as the suspension hooks carried by the cross bar; and

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the upper member of one of the trestles illustrating the means for supporting an end of the cross bar therefrom. I

Similar characteristics of reference indicate similar parts in the several figures of the drawing.

For convenience I prefer that the trestles heretofore referred to be in the form of demountable step ladders each including, for example, a back frame member 10 and a front stepped member 11, the side posts of which members are of hollow construction to receive the legs of a top member 12 which may be in the form of and utilized as a stool when demounted from the other members of the trestle. Thus the stepped member and the top member may serve individual purposes, when disassembled, as in the application of the 'blind to or its removal from a window frame.

The upper members m2 of the trestles are adapted, as by means of channels 13, to support the ends of a telescopic or otherwise extensible cross bar 14-15 as shown in Figure 1. This cross bar has mounted thereon adjustable devices in the form of hooks 16 which may be spaced apart, to an extent to suit the width of the blind which is to be mounted thereon. The upper rail 17 of the Venetian blind is simply seated in the lower portions of the said hooks 16, so that the extended blind may depend beneath the said cross bar 14-15 which is elevated by its trestles to a point higher than the total length of the blind.

19 are a series of struts, each of a length somewhat greater than the height of the cross bar above the ground, and shown as being provided at their lower ends with rubber or similar pads 20. The upper ends of the said struts are provided with means, such as clamps 21, for attachment to the cross bar in a manner permitting their being variably spaced apart to suit the width of the blind which is to be supported and also in a manner admitting of the said struts being moved from a position inclined forwardly of the said cross bar to a position inclined rearwardly thereof as viewed from what may normally be considered as the front of the device as a whole.

It will be noted that, with the structure inclined forwardly of the cross bar in the direction shown in Figures 1 and 2, an extended blind suspended from the hooks 17 will lean against the inclined faces of the struts and the slats of the blind will be adequately braced by the struts against the pressure exerted in cleaning.

It will also be obvious that, when the slats of the Venetian blind are rotated completely in one direction (in the manner well known and characteristic of such blinds) an upper edge portion of each slat is overlapped by the lower portion of the slat immediately above it, so that all but the overlapped portions of the slats may be readily cleaned. On the other hand, with the blind suspended in the same position, the rotation of the slats in the opposite direction to their fullest extent will result in the lower portion of those faces of the slats now presented to the worker being overlapped by the uppermost margins of the slats immediately below them. Consequently, after the blind has been cleaned by a worker positioned in front of the device as illustrated even following rotation of the slats to both of their limits, there will still remain a small marginal portion on each side of each slat which has not been cleaned.

, However, by repositioning the struts 19 to the opposite side of the blind to that which they previously occupied, and inclining these struts in the opposite direction from the vertical to that which they previously occupied, the whole blind may be now cleaned from a position in the rear of the rack; in which position it will be found that the uncleaned margins of the slats are now exposed to the worker in both positions of slat rotation.

Thus, an effected cleaning of the surfaces of the slats to both their upper and lower edges, and on both sides, may

be readily effected with a minimum of effort and without necessitating the removal of the Venetian blind from the supporting hooks 16.

This invention may be developed within the scope of the following claims without departing from the essential features of the saidinvention, and it. is desired that the specification and drawing be read as being merely illustrative of a practical embodiment of the same and notin strictly limiting sense.

What I claim is:

1. A cleaning rack comprising a bar supported in a horizontal position above the ground, means on said bar to detachably suspend a Venetian blind from said bar, and struts having a length greater than the distance between said bar and the ground, said individual'struts being removably suspended from said bar for application at an angle determined by their excess length to either side of said bar whereby to support a blind in a sloping manner from either side of said blind.

2.. A cleaning rack comprising a pair of spaced trestles, a bar supported at each end thereof by'said trestles; said bar being held in a substantially horizontal position above the ground, means on said bar to removably suspend the Venetian blind from said bar, and struts independent of said means extending from a side of said bar and being of a greater length than the distance between the bar and the ground, said struts being each detachably connected to said bar whereby said struts may be positioned on either side thereof while a blind remains suspended by said means to permit" either side of said blind to be freely exposed for over-all-cleaning.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,598,798 Kerr June 3, 1952 

